rule of law

Image from the protests against October 2018 constitutional coup in, Sri Lanka. Media Release – Appeal – Sri Lanka General Elections 2020. For any country to be truly successful it must adopt a system of governance that generates sustainable well-being for all. In Sri Lanka, our political landscape has got to change in such a […]

A petition challenging the Presidential pardon granted to an Army officer convicted for the massacre in Mirusuvil, has been fixed for support on 24 September 2020. The soldier was sentenced to death in June 2015 for the murder of eight Tamil civilians in 2000 in Mirusuvil but was granted a presidential pardon this year. A former member […]

Image: AG Dappula De Livera, P.C. In his letter to the “Presidential Commission of Inquiry to inquire into and obtain information in relation to the alleged political victimization of Public Officers, Employees of State Corporations, Members of the Armed Forces and the Police Service who held posts during the period commencing from 8th January 2015 […]

Image: Hejaaz Hizbullah. By Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, Researcher at Amnesty International. As much of the island was celebrating the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, senior lawyer and minority and civic rights activist Hejaaz Hizbullah got an unusual call from the Ministry of Health. They said they were worried he may have contracted COVID-19 and advised him to […]

Image: Senior Deputy Inspector General Deshabandu Tennakoon visiting Lunava after killing of a fisherman by the police. From a photojournalist being frogmarched by a suspect cop implicated in Sri Lanka’s 2012 Welikada prison massacre in the very premises of the High Court this Friday as aghast bystanders scuttled out of the way to lawyers being […]

Last month (May 2020) a Magistrate in Jaffna had withdrawn quarantine orders against the organizers of end of war commemorations, based on appeals by lawyers.[1] At least three lawyers have faced reprisals in the days afterwards. Attorney-at-Law Mr. Roy Dilaksan’s house was reported to have been attacked by unknown persons.[2]  Another lawyer who had appeared for the […]

Image: To combat this, a critical mass of civil society must mount an apolitical challenge to the political establishment . Governance in Sri Lanka today is transitioning from a constitutional (albeit flawed) system of checks and balances to tugs of war between competing political power centres that are constrained not by the Constitution or statute […]

During the last few weeks, the media has paid a great deal of attention to fundamental rights cases filed in our Supreme Court. The electronic media, typically expressed half-truths or incorrect information on what these cases were about. Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, opposition parties who should have been concerned with the matter, failed to contradict the […]

Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayaka said in open court that officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had attempted to show photographs of Hejaaz Hizbullah at his chambers prior to the recording of statements from two children. When the matter was taken up before Dissanayake on 24 June, he told Hizbullah’s lawyers that prior to the […]

Executive Summary. (INFORM) There were 72 incidents reported during this month of May, reporting more than two incidents per a day. This was a significant increase when compared with the previous months. Another significant difference was 32% of incidents reported from North and East. 14 incidents (19% of total incidents) were reported only from the Jaffna […]

The Court of Appeal today issued an interim injunction order preventing the Permanent High Court Trial- at- Bar from hearing the case against Former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda and 13 others. The Court ordered that the case will not be taken up until the writ petition filed by Karannagoda, challenging indictments served against him, […]

Image: Under repair: The St. Anthony’s church, one of the churches attacked last year on Easter.   | Photo Credit: REUTERS Meera Srinivasan. Lawyers and activists have flagged apparent lack of adherence to due process by police during investigation into the 2019 bombings. As investigators in Sri Lanka move into the “final stages” of the probe […]

Ahimsa Wickrematunge, the daughter of late journalist and Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, has appealed to the Police Commission to block the appointment of SSP A.R.P.J. Alwis as Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Wickrematunge releasing a statement said that Alwis was ordered to be arrested in connection to her father’s murder and he was unsuited […]

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has established an office of the Ombudsman at the presidential secretariat and has appointed Retired Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police S. M. Wickremasinghe as his Ombudsman. The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman)  is an office established under Article 45 of the 19th Amendment to the  Constitution of the […]

Image: Ishini Divyanjalee One of the protesters,   manhandled by Police has to be hospitalised. ( Image: LankaViews) The killing of George Floyd, who was brutally murdered by the Minneapolis Police in the United States, has launched worldwide protests against the racism, brutality and repression of the police. We strongly condemn the violence by the police […]

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) is concerned by threats to democracy and the rule of law in Sri Lanka as the government of Sri Lanka responds to the Covid-19 crisis. Recent developments could lead to interference in civilian parliamentary governance by the military, and to a disregard for Constitutional rules and the Rule of Law.  […]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to consider petitions filed by opposition parties and civil groups seeking to annul a presidential order dissolving Parliament because the coronavirus pandemic has prevented elections within the constitutionally mandated time. The Supreme Court made the decision after listening to arguments from the petitioners […]

Image: Western Province DIG Deshabandu Tennekoon says Police are looking for temporary residents. ECONOMYNEXT – Questions are being raised over a door-to-door survey being conducted by Police in the City of Colombo and its suburbs of residents and the collection of personal data by officers accompanied by unidentified civilians. The Deputy Inspector General of Police […]

1. President Rajapaksa dissolved the Parliament on 2nd March 2020– six months before the due date, amidst the growing danger of COVID-19 pandemic. By this time, the uncertainty relating to the possibility of holding elections during the outbreak had already surfaced. However, the President chose to disregard the looming threat and called an election without […]

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has brought six institutions under the Ministry of Defence issuing an extraordinary gazette on 22 May 2020. Sri Lanka does not have a minister of defence but it is president Rajapaksa who acts as the unofficial minister of defence.  According to the constitution, the president cannot hold any ministries. The deputy minister […]

There has been a very useful discussion in the public domain about the relationship between the three organs of government, especially in the present context where one organ, namely Parliament, is not functional. While Parliament has been described by some as being ‘dead’ due to it being dissolved, others point out that under the Constitution […]

PARL Statement on recent developments in Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya: Misuse of land acquisition laws and the military. The People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) is deeply disturbed by the military intervention in civilian land administration in the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya area in Ampara, and the reported moves to attempt legal acquisition of […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Three minors, all students of the Al-Zuhairiya Arabic School in Karaitivu have filed Fundamental Rights petitions before the Supreme Court alleging that officials who identified themselves as Policemen forcibly took them from their parents and attempted to make them sign false documents. The parents of the children have signed the petitions which have […]

Image courtesy of the Medium Statement from Family of Hejaaz Hizbullah, Attorney at Law.  We have been greatly disturbed by a vile and vicious media campaign being carried out against our husband and brother Hejaaz Hizbullah with the intention of prejudicing public opinion. We believe that this campaign is being carried out with the support […]

(Wednesday 13 May 2020) In an open letter to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice, the Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has called upon the country’s government to abide by due process and uphold the rule of law in the case of Sri Lankan lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah. Former […]

Even as petitions are collected and hands are rightfully wrung for redress regarding the arrest and detention of attorney Hejaaz Hisbullah, it is timely to recall (despite a tad unkindly) that if the attempt to push through Sri Lanka’s draft Counter-Terror Act had succeeded at the height of the ‘yahapalanaya’ years, abuse of civil liberties […]

Image: Pakistani-military-ditators-Gen.Ayub-Khan-Gen.Yahya-Khan-Gen.Zia-ul-Haq-Gen.Pervez-Musharraf (NewsinAsia) The doctrine of necessity was first expounded in the 13th century by English jurist Bracton, who stated ‘that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity’. Glanville Williams described the defence of necessity as involving ‘a choice of the lesser evil. ‘ The doctrine is recognized in criminal law. For […]

Image: Hijaaz Hizbulla, November 2018 at a protest against President Sirisena’s constitutional coup. On 16 April, I heard that my former classmate Hejaaz Hisbullah had been arrested by the CID. As I learnt more about the questionable circumstances of his arrest, I have been struck by how little these questions seem to matter in various […]

“We have decided that we need to attend the meeting with the Hon. Prime Minister, because all these issues outlined [in the letter] need to be addressed and to clearly indicate that we are prepared to extend our co-operation to the resolution of these issues in a reasonable and acceptable manner in the interests of […]

In a letter addressed to the Chairperson and other members of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, former MP M.A. Sumantiran says that although the restricting movement is desirable and necessary at this time in our country in order to meet the challenge presented by COVID-19 such restrictions including curfew must be imposed legally […]